<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Beautiful by Neorue</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29969634">Beautiful</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neorue/pseuds/Neorue'>Neorue</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Video Blogging RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Arsonist Niki, Baking, Cake, Fluff, Niki | Nihachu-centric, Picnics, SIKE, The last L’Manburg war, Wholesome, does this count as angst?, o7 - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 03:01:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>336</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29969634</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neorue/pseuds/Neorue</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>L’Manburg had always been her home.<br/>It wasn’t anymore.<br/>The tree’s ashes dusted the explosion marred ground.</p><p> </p><p>Before and after Niki</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Beautiful</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Cooking was always something Niki loved. Baking- to be more precise.</p><p>Something about the flames of the old brick oven lapping away at the soon-to-be-perfect cake relaxed her. <br/>It felt like home</p><p>Needless to say she spent a lot of time at her bakery.</p><p>The cream colored invitations were a formality but they had been fun to make and the smiles on people’s faces when they were handed one was an image she wanted to immortalize.</p><p>~Join me for a picnic! Cake always included!~</p><p>——</p><p>The shade of the tree was nice and there was a small breeze going. A few bees lulled around a cluster of oxeye daisies a bit away.</p><p>Laughter filled the air, the sweet scent of buttercream frosting matching the mood perfectly.</p><p>She offered a pen and they all signed an invitation with messages about the day. Niki pinned the paper to the trunk of the tree with one of her hairpins.</p><p>Beautiful.</p><p>——</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p> </p><p>Home was always something Niki had loved. L’Manburg was always her home.</p><p>Something about the flames charring the leaves and scarring the rough bark made her smile. <br/>She’d find a new home.</p><p>The cream colored invitation was singed and beginning to burn, the tip of the hairpin starting to melt. The ends of the charred branches began to float down in veils of ash. The wind whipped from an explosion, withers screeching in pure joy. The scene of complete chaos and destruction would be immortalized in history forever.</p><p>Niki spun away from the madness, stepping a few paces back to admire her handiwork. The tree finished burning, the once blazing fire quietly extinguishing with nothing left to consume.</p><p>The explosions were still going, more and more withers spawning.</p><p>Something in the ash pile caught her eye.</p><p>Her hairpin.</p><p>The red plastic flower charm had melted down into something that resembled a blood splatter.</p><p>She pinned it back into her hair.</p><p>Niki turned back to the crumbling, burning, wannabe-nation.</p><p>”It was never meant to be.”</p><p>TNT rained from the sky.</p><p>Beautiful.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I’m not sorry at all<br/>This isn’t what I normally write- tell me what you think!<br/>&lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>